Note for non-Australian visitors

In Australia "Liberal" is Right-Wing Neo-Cons; economically liberal, socially repressive, tax the poor to subsidise the rich. Republican is also a good thing, as opposed to being a lackey of the British monarchy.

Horse Racing, Climate Change, US elections and Taxing Rich People

by 99, editor of Turn Left

We are heading into the home straight for the political year, a US election on Wednesday (Australian time), the largest betting day in Australia (Melbourne Cup, Tuesday), and Federal Parliament starts its summer break 29 November.

Tony Abbott promised Australia he would be in the Lodge by Christmas, 2010… not only did he not get the keys to the Lodge that year, he didn’t get an early election (despite, what seems like, most of the media in this country aiding and abetting him in his desire to circumvent democracy and get Murdoch-media led regime change)… but now it looks like, Tony Abbott might not even be LOCO (Leader Of the Coalition Opposition) by this years end.

image by Tandberg, from Fairfax, used without permission, but am hoping it counts as fair use under copyright

“Teaparty Tony” Abbott does not evoke fear in his Opponents, in fact, the Government is now openly mocking him during Question Time. And as the old adage goes “you don’t fear what you laugh at”. Teaparty Tony build his reputation on being an attack dog: punch first, ask questions later if he can remember them. It turns out that Tony is more a toothless poodle than attack Doberman.

Here is Greg Combet (MP for Charlton, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency), last week, giving us the Liberal Party form guide. Note the reactions for the various Liberals mentioned – Malcolm “Goldman Sachs” Turnbull is laughing heartily, Julie “Die From Asbestosis You Horrible Poor Working People” Bishop looks like she is seething.

Teaparty Tony refused to develop policies, as he had backed an early election, from “illegitimate government”, to Peter Slipper, Craig Thomson, and he bet the Lodge on a public so outraged by carbon pricing (or in simple words Tony can remember “carbon tax”), yet nothing was prying the ALP-Greens-Independent coalition from Government.

Tony Abbott’s scare campaign on Carbon Pricing went from “cobra strike” to “python squeeze” to “octopus embrace” – within weeks most people realised Carbon Pricing was more like an earth worm crawling over your foot. The never-ending shouts of “toxic tax” so bored the voters that they stopped listening, and Toxic Tony had nothing else left up his sleeve to convince the electorate that we needed an “Election Now!”.

Here is ABC’s “The Hamster Wheel” from The Chaser, taking a look at how Carbon Pricing turned out to be nothing more than a Liberal Party and Murdoch media (but I repeat myself) beat up.

But the mendacity of Toxic Tony where climate change is concerned is to be expected – he doesn’t have policies, and saying NO is not a policy. This is a man who has said “climate change is crap“, he has also said “If you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax“, and has his very expensive “Direct Action” tree planting, work-for-the-dole, gardeners-for-the-wealthy scheme to combat a climate change he doesn’t believe in.

Not only does Toxic Tony not believe in climate change, he has led the Australian media off a cliff, in their insistence of portraying climate change as a matter of faith, or a “debate”, suggesting scientists are not sure, legitimising a future Abbott government (tell him he’s dreaming!) from having to take action against something that may or may not exist, in his opinion.

During the Cold War, the USA and the Soviet Union spent billions upon billions of dollars, and a few rubles, on weapons that were never used, to fight a global war which never happened. No one questioned whether it was a worthy way to spend taxpayers hard-earned. Yet here we are 30 years later killing our planet, and a barely literate Opposition leader wants to sit around and have a debate.

As recent weather disasters have shown, the cost of cleaning up after disaster hits and the damage it inflicts on societies and the economy is far, far greater than a few cents a week in carbon pricing.

That’s the problem with our obsessions: to always see two sides of every issue equally, especially when one side has a lot of money. It means we have to pretend there are always two truths, and the side that doesn’t know anything has something to say. On this side of the debate: every scientist in the world. On the other: Mr. Potato-Head. There is no debate here; it’s just scientists and non-scientists, and since the topic is science, the non-scientists don’t get a vote. We shouldn’t decide everything by polling the masses. This is the fallacy argumentum ad numerum, the idea that something is true because great numbers believe it, as in “Eat shit. 20 trillion flies can’t be wrong.”
Bill Maher (4 June, 2010)

Why does it take a comedian to point out this false-debate? When ‘Teaparty Tony’ Abbott is making great pronouncements about his belief in climate change – he is not a climate scientist, which means in this so-called climate change “debate”, Abbott is Mr Potato-head.

In the wake of recent extreme-weather events, when the US east coast was hit by a Frankenstorm (which perhaps could have been called ‘Stormageddon’), those who laugh at climate change, won’t be laughing for long. So when pensioners suffering Alan Jonesyphilis (a condition which turns the brain into swiss cheese the more you listen to his hate-filled radio show) complain about the “witch craft” of climate science, what do they care? – they will long gone by the time climate change kicks in.

Hurricane Sandy was just the warning – as this brutal clip shows.

The world does not need a US president who doesn’t believe in climate change, or even belief the scientists who spend a life time researching climate science.

Australia does not need a Prime Minister who thinks climate change is “crap”.

Have we forgotten Cyclone Yasi (which devastated Queensland) already? Have we forgotten eight years of droughts and water restrictions and one year of floods? Do we believe ‘Truth Denying’ Tony when he says the Australian climate is “benign”?

You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.

Although, what the world wants – or needs – is pretty much irrelevant when Right-wing political parties decide to game elections and media moguls choose sides.

As Rupert Murdoch has done.

Murdoch’s media empire has put the merde in Murdoch. In a two-horse race that is the US Elections, Uncle Rupey has backed Mittens Romney for a win, and is doing all he can to nobble (British horse racing slang, meaning to disable a horse) the favourite, Barack Obama.

But when media moguls who dominate media and the means to disseminate information decide who they’re backing – whether it is Tony Abbott in Australia or Romney, there will never be fair and balanced or unbiased reporting.

That, however, is the problem with billionaires deciding the national agenda, you don’t get decisions made on what is in the best interests of the nation, its future, or its present. You get decisions made that benefit the billionaires, and their lackeys and sock-puppets in politics.

Come Tuesday (Wednesday, Australian time), one can only hope that Rupert has backed the losing ticket.

After all, Murdoch has already backed the loser in Australia…another Tony Abbott “Look At Moi“, filling the news cycle with useless junk, from Friday 2 Nov

And yet, amazingly, billionaires have somehow (owning the media is a good start) convinced The People, that what is good for the very rich is also good for working people.

The Right have convinced the working class to vote against their own self-interest by electing politicians who oversee a massive transfer of wealth from the working poor to the parasitic millionaires and billionaires, “in the national interest”.

That is the lie of “trickle down economics” – that the rich are the job creators, they need more money, more tax breaks, less taxes (when they already pay nothing), less red tape, no unions, no safe workplaces – they are extorting the taxpayers “Give Us Money, or We Will Ship Jobs Overseas”… then like all stand-over men, take the money and still run.

text of image: Rachel Maddow “Giving rich people a tax break doesn’t help the economy, but it sure does help rich people”

(Maddow is one of the smartest political commentators in the US, and TRMS – ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ may be available in Australia on the Murdoch owned pay tv, however FULL episodes are available for free podcast downloads on the iThingie)
image of Maddow taken from a screen grab of the 2-nov-2012 episode, used without permission, use of image is not intended to imply that Maddow would in any way endorse the contents of this post or blog
image created by 99 for TurnLeft2013

This is why it is important that we stop giving our vote to people who refuse to believe in science while worshipping the dollar, and why we should stop giving our hard-earned dollars to corporations who rip the guts out of the planet… if we don’t we are in for a very bleak future.

We are gambling with our future – a much bigger gamble than a horse race, but the future of the human race and the planet we live.

Tony Abbott is ‘Vigo the Carpathian’ in Ghostbusters II, in a world where we ignore the reality of climate change.

Image from Flickr, used with permission, thank you to the creator, shall not be reproduced without permission from the creator

I wrote a commending comment for this blog essay, giving it the 2012 Champion’s Award for Brilliance. I wont go into detail repeating what wafted into cyberspace with a drop out, but this is brilliant. Would you do me the honor of granting permission (following the appropriate etiquette) of reblogging this classic. It belongs in Eternity’s Time Capsule. Brilliant work to author. Thankyou so much. You have made politics in Australia bearable, (from putting up with stupidity of the Coalition perspective).

You asked before if you could reblog, and I thought you meant the whole piece, not just a link. So when I say yes this time, I mean you can reblog the post, except the George Bludger (Vigo the Carpathian) image, I asked him for permission to post it, I don’t know I can grant someone else that permission – he is on twitter thou, you can ask him directly if you want (twitter handle on the image).

If you want to reblog, unchanged and with links to the original post, yes.

Good scientists are never 100% sure about anything, and they’re not afraid to say it. Anyone who reports to be 100% certain has an agenda, that’s common sense. The problem with the carbon tax isn’t whether one believes in man made global warming or not, it’s the fact that we have a government that is forever adding to the cost base of Australian business. Carbon tax is just one example. We are no longer competitive in international markets and our economy is slowly declining. I’m worried what the future holds for us if this government stays in power, especially once the remnants of the mining boom dissipate, We’ll have nothing left.

The government has forced our economy into this position, as we are not competitive in any other industry. Too expensive. Too much tax. Our resources are not running out, our competitive advantage in mining is diminishing.

The Libs dont want a strong economy – they want a basket case economy, people willing to work for $2 a day, forced to sell assets cheaply to the rich who are loaded with money not wasted on food, rent, healthcare.

Tony is an idiot, and the media treat us as idiots for trying to convince us otherwise.